I received this gift on the last day of class from one of my biology students. She’d grown it from a cutting . . . not only is the plant adorable, but it came with this (scientifically accurate!) caption:
“Asexual plants: only 1 parent required. Parent passes all its genes to offspring. Identical offspring, splits the contents of one cell into two.”
This makes me so happy. 🙂
Later, I found this comment at the bottom of her final exam:
Just sent off both my final exams to be printed by the campus copy shop, and I’m totally caught up on grading (as much as I can be before a bunch of new stuff arrives on my desk next week). But as of right now, I am completely caught up. For the first time in several months. Feels good, but I’m not sure what to do with myself, really. (Except that it’s almost 3 a.m., so probably going to bed would be an A+++ plan). 
😀
One of the most pressing issues on campus this semester was the possibilty of a teacher’s strike, in response to a lack of pay increases for faculty in recent years. “I don’t want to strike, but I will” was our motto, and I was 100% prepared to go on strike, if it had come to that.
In order to minimize the impact on my students, I’d arranged the schedule during the proposed strike week so my students could watch a movie on their own one of the missed days, and take an exam online on the other. (Since my classes were only taught two days a week, the impact on each individual class was relatively small). Either way, I thought this was a good compromise – allowing them to access their education even on the days when I’d cancelled class.
At the 11th hour, we got the word that a tentative agreement was reached, and the strike was cancelled. I’ll admit that I breathed a sigh of relief about that (I genuinely did not want to strike), and I’m also pleased with the way it all played out. We got much of what we wanted out of this agreement, through the time-honored process of collective bargaining. I’m proud to be a card-carrying member of the California Faculty Association.
The story below, originally posted in the Sonoma State Star, gives some additional background. (Reproduced in its entirety, as the Star doesn’t keep articles online in perpetuity):
Read more
One of the assignments I give my intro biology students is called “Dragon Genetics,” in which they determine the alleles (versions of genes) that a baby dragon will inherit from its parents. Then, I ask them to create an accurate image of the dragon, based on the inherited traits. Most of the students use a dollmaker (from this site). Here’s one I created as an example:
I love to see their dollmaker dragons, but occasionally, I’ll have a few students who do the artwork entirely by hand. Here are some examples from this semester:
Pretty spectacular, eh?
Getting ready to teach my first 115 class of the semester. Oh yeah.
Our recent trip to Mountain Lake was featured on the Presidio Trust’s blog (http://www.presidio.gov/blog). The post seems to have scrolled off their blog, so I’ll reproduce it here:
(As published in the Fall, 2015, Science and Technology’s Newsletter”)
“This past May, the School of Science & Technology in partnership with the WATERS Collaborative hosted its third annual Science Symposium. As in past years, the event was kicked off with the 2014-15 Science 120 cohort presenting talks on the research project they conducted over the past year. This year many of the students also presented posters. We had a record number of 81 posters presented from departments across campus highlighting the work of 193 students.”
I was especially pleased to see this photo in the newsletter, as I worked with this cohort of Science 120 students, as a consultant to help them with field techniques related to their individual research projects. What a great group of students!
Here I am, in my OFFICE, on the first day of the semester. SUPER EXCITED!
For the first time (ever?), I have my very own office!
